3 things we learned from Germany's penalty shootout win over Italy at Euro 2016

Germany and Italy played a brilliant match. It was a tactical and hard-fought battle with plenty of close, heart-stopping moments at either end of the pitch, as two of Europe's best sides played their hearts out for 120 minutes for a place in the Euro 2016 semifinal. The match had to go to penalties after the score was still at 1-1 after 120 minutes, and a dramatic and bizarre penalty shootout saw Germany advance after one of the best matches of the tournament so far.

The first half was widely derided as a dull affair for its lack of goals, but the truth was anything but. Both Italy and Germany played a quick-paced passing game to try to beat the hard press both sides were employing, creating plenty of attacking opportunities at either end of the pitch. The lack of scoring wasn't because of a stodgy, slow-paced game plan by either Joachim Löw or Antonio Conte. It was because of impressive defensive stands, especially from Jerome Boateng and Leonardo Bonucci, and because of a series of miscues from Mario Gomez and Eder in the German and Italian attacks.